Southern Indiana Man Listed on the National Registry of Sex Offenders Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Possession of Child Pornography

LOUISVILLE, KY—A Georgetown, Indiana man listed on the National Registry of Sex Offenders was sentenced in United States District Court on January 9, 2014, by U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II, to 10 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for possession of child pornography announced David J. Hale, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

James W. Dotts, Jr., 38, was subject to supervised release from the Southern District of Indiana, which began on February 13, 2012, as a result of a conviction for possession of child pornography. On February 12, 2013, Dotts admitted to downloading over 500 computer image files and approximately 12 movie files depicting child pornography onto a computer at his employer's facility located in Louisville, Kentucky. He admitted to defeating his employer's security software, downloading the images from the Internet, saving the images to the computer, and transferring the images to a USB thumb drive that he carried back and forth from home to his job site. Dotts admitted that he began downloading adult pornography in June 2012, then began downloading child pornography in January 2013.

A search of Dotts' locker at his place of employment resulted in the discovery of four high-capacity thumb drives. Dotts admitted that the thumb drives contained images of non-nude children, which he had downloaded from the Internet. The USB drives and the computers used to download the child pornography were seized by the FBI for forensic analysis. The forensic analysis revealed five images of child pornography located on one of the computers and approximately 270 images of child erotica. At the time those files were downloaded, Dotts was the only employee with access to the computers.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Spencer McKiness and was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."